Abbreviations
, 41 vols. (St. Petersburg, 1890–1904)
DSK
Dachno-stroitel’nyi kooperativ
LOGAV
Leningradskii oblastnoi gosudarstvennyi arkhiv v g. Vyborge
, 3 ser. (St. Petersburg, 1830–1911)
RGASPI
Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv sotsial’no-politicheskoi informatsii
RGIA
Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi istoricheskii arkhiv
TsGAMO
Tsentral’nyi gosudarstvennyi arkhiv Moskovskoi oblasti
TsGA SPb
Tsentral’nyi gosudarstvennyi arkhiv Sankt-Peterburga
TsGIA SPb
Tsentral’nyi gosudarstvennyi istoricheskii arkhiv Sankt-Peterburga
TsIAM
Tsentral’nyi istoricheskii arkhiv Moskvy
TsMAM
Tsentral’nyi munitsipal’nyi arkhiv Moskvy
Petersburg and surrounding area. This map includes many of the dacha places mentioned in the text. It is far from comprehensive, however. Dacha settlements can be found at almost every stop on the railway lines out of Petersburg as well as in many more remote parts of the region.
Moscow and surrounding area. This map includes the four railway lines that have been most influential in the history of the Moscow dacha. The other routes—northwest toward Riga, north toward Savelovo, southwest toward Kiev, east toward Nizhnii Novgorod, south toward Kursk and Volgograd—have also played their part, and are now densely overgrown with dacha and garden settlements. The first of these lines to be completed was the Nikolaevskaia in 1851; the latest—to Riga and to Savelovo—became operative in the early twentieth century.
Introduction
The subject of this book requires less introduction than many topics in European history, since “dacha” is that rare creature: a Russian term that has gained a firm foothold in the English language. Its impact has, moreover, gone well beyond lexicography. The word has left numerous traces in the imagination of the anglophone world. It may conjure up the summer houses of Chekhov’s stories, or the out-of-town residences of the Soviet privileged classes, or even allotment shacks on the outskirts of post-Soviet cities. It is usually glossed in English dictionaries as “country house” or “cottage” and referred to as the Slavic equivalent of a vacation house or second home.
